


The Sinking Ship (The Last Chance Remix)

by listerinezero



Category: X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom
Genre: Dark!Future, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sickfic, old dudes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-03
Updated: 2014-08-03
Packaged: 2018-02-11 15:58:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2074233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/listerinezero/pseuds/listerinezero
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charles gets sick while they're on the run from the Sentinels, but Erik is there to care for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sinking Ship (The Last Chance Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



Erik takes the once-cool cloth from Charles’ forehead and wrings out the last of the moisture. It’s warmed through from the fever, which still hasn’t subsided, but at least Charles looks more comfortable now. Erik dabs at his forehead with a second, dry towel, careful not to wake him, and goes to join the others in the kitchen.

The house where they’ve been living in Montevideo was once grand. Erik notices the remains of better times in the details: the elegant staircase, the high ceilings, the view of the ocean from the balcony. But the war has followed them even here, to Uruguay, destroying the historic architecture as much as the mutant neighborhoods that once thrived around it. The house is not as comfortable as it probably once was, but there’s cool running water to ease Charles’ fever, and Erik can care for him as well here as he’s likely to anywhere else these days.

“How’s he holding up?” the Wolverine asks when he sees Erik step into the kitchen. There’s an uncertainty in his voice, but Erik isn’t sure if that’s because he’s worried about Charles or because he’s still uneasy sharing a house and the occasional conversation with Magneto. It’s been almost three years since Erik joined Charles, and by extension the X-Men, full time, but still they regard him with open suspicion. Fortunately for both of them, Erik can’t be bothered with worrying about what the Wolverine thinks of him.

“Not well,” he tells Logan as he rinses the washcloth in the sink. “But he’s been asleep for a couple of hours now. The rest will be good for him.”

There are a few others gathered at the kitchen table - Rogue, Storm, and Jubilee - and a handful of younger recruits in the next room. They share a worried glance as Erik sets the washcloth aside to rummage in the cabinets.

“Do we have any crackers?” he asks. “Or broth?” Charles has been vomiting up nearly every bit of food Erik feeds him, but still Erik must try. When there’s no answer, Erik turns to face them. 

“What is it?” he asks. Now, instead of a worried glance, they share a guilty one.

The look Erik gives them is one that Charles always enjoys - he calls it Erik’s ‘teacher glare,’ and says that if he’d come home early enough to have taught at the school, it would have guaranteed he’d never have had a tardy twice. In this case, it’s enough to get a confession out of Storm.

“We need to move,” she says.

“When?”

“Soon. It’s time we caught up with Kitty and Blink. It sounds like they’ve got a strategy that’s been working for them.” She looks defeated. “It’s more than we have here.”

Erik shakes his head. “Charles can’t be moved yet. He’s too sick.”

Jubilee snorts. “If we don’t move him, he’ll be too dead.”

“Jubilee!” Rogue gasps, and smacks her on the arm before Erik can do worse.

Erik has never been known as a patient man, but he’s been trying. He’s here as Charles’ companion more than anything else, which Charles has reminded him repeatedly, every time Erik has overstepped his bounds. Unfortunately for Rogue, Jubilee, Wolverine, and Storm, this time, Charles isn’t awake to steady him.

“Not to be indelicate,” he begins through gritted teeth, “but Charles is elderly and he’s a paraplegic, and he’s at a very high risk of seeing this flu turn into pneumonia. And I’ll be damned if, after all this, I lose Charles to the fucking flu!”

That shuts them up. When it’s clear that none of them is going to argue with him, Erik turns his attention back to the cabinet. There are some old cans of asparagus and beans, which Erik thinks would turn anyone’s stomach, and a tin of coffee, which appears to be older than Jubilee.

“Here.” Wolverine taps him on the shoulder and hands him a loaf of bread. “We were going to go out in the morning for more food. I’ll try to find some more pain killers, too.”

Erik takes the bread. “Thank you.”

“We’ll give it another week,” says Storm. “I hope the Professor will be feeling better by then.”

Nodding, Erik sets the bread on a plate and picks up the washcloth again. “I hope so, too.”

When Erik returns to the bedroom he discovers that Charles is awake. He’s not sitting up, but his eyes are open and he’s wearing a hint of a smile.

“I appreciate the sentiment, darling, but did you really need to call me ‘elderly’?” Charles’ voice is hoarse, but stronger than it was yesterday.

Erik sets down the plate of bread, then sits gently bedside Charles, so as not to rock the mattress too much. He presses his lips to Charles’ forehead. Still warm. “Yes, if that will get their attention. How are you feeling?”

“How am I feeling? Tired of being asked how I’m feeling, mostly.” Erik uses his teacher glare again, which makes Charles smile and answer the question. “Everything hurts and I’m very tired, but better than yesterday. And I’m happy you’re here with me.”

Erik kisses Charles’ forehead again, abandoning the pretext of checking his temperature. “I am, too. Now move over and make room.”

Charles slowly inches himself out of the middle of the bed so that Erik can climb in under the covers beside him. It’s still early, and Erik isn’t tired. He doesn’t even take his shoes off. He just wants to be close while he can.

“I’m probably contagious, you know,” Charles reminds him for the hundredth time as Erik curls himself against his side.

“I’ll take my chances. Besides, if I was going to get it, I would already be sick by now.”

“Not necessarily.”

Erik rests his hand on Charles’ chest and kisses the side of his head. “Well, it’s too late now.”

Erik has done his best to change the sheets as often as possible these past few days, but it’s already time for a fresh set. The bed is sticky with sweat. Erik doesn’t mind. He’s survived worse to be close to Charles. 

In the three years they’ve been together - openly together, fully together, for the first time in their lives - Erik has never regretted his decision to join Charles and throw his lot in with the X-Men. He’d spent years fruitlessly trying to fight off the Sentinels himself, and his mind was always preoccupied, worrying whether or not Charles was safe, or whether they’d ever see each other again. They’d be stronger together, he had thought: not only him and Charles, but Magneto and the X-Men against the Sentinels. It was the right thing to do both personally and tactically.

Personally, he’d been right. Tactically, Erik feels sure that they’re no worse off, but considering the desperate look in Storm’s eyes when she said they ought to go find Kitty, and the deeply suspicious tone in Wolverine’s voice any time they’re in the same room, Erik has to wonder if they’re doing any better together than they had been apart.

“They still don’t trust me,” Erik says.

“They never will,” says Charles. “Not entirely. But they know you love me, so they trust your good intentions. At least when it comes to my health and safety, if not the whole group of us. Frankly they think you’d throw them to the Sentinels if you thought it would buy me an extra hour.”

“That’s absolutely true,” Erik says. 

Charles chuckles softly, which turns into a cough, and then returns to a chuckle again. “You know, don’t tell any of them I said so, but I’m relieved to hear it.”

His fingers entwine with Erik’s where they rest atop his chest, and there’s an air of worry in the space between their minds.

"Do you remember the movie Titanic?” Charles asks quietly.

“I think I was in prison that year.”

“There was a scene towards the end, when the ship is sinking. An old couple climbs into bed together, and they hold each other as the water rushes in around them.”

Charles projects his memory of the scene, and it’s a grim image, but one that feels altogether too familiar.

”I never took you for such a pessimist,” Erik says.

“Yes, well. I think there would be worse ways to go than like this, with your arms around me. That’s about as much optimism as I can muster lately.”

Erik holds him a little tighter. He agrees, although he doesn’t say so. After all, one of them has to have hope, or neither of them will survive.

“Erik, I’m running out of ideas,” Charles confesses after another cough. “And the more I try to come up with a new plan, the more I just think of all the things we’ve already tried, that have already failed. I just don’t feel like I have it in me anymore.”

“That’s only because you’ve got the flu. You’re tired and aching. You should be focusing on resting and feeling better, not on battle strategies. No one is expecting you to be the general this week.”

“They are,” says Charles. “Those people in the next room.”

“The people in the next room care about you and want you to feel better.” Erik traces his thumb across Charles’ cheek. “Ororo wants us to move out, go find Kitty. We’re going to wait until you’re feeling better.”

“Mmm, yes. One week. I heard.”

“More than enough time, so long as you drink enough fluids and stop thinking depressing thoughts about the Titanic.”

That gets another chuckle out of Charles. “Fair enough. It was their own damned fault for not bringing enough life boats, anyway.”

“That’s true. If only someone had warned them ahead of time, the whole mess could have been avoided.”

A knock at the door startles Erik into sitting up. They all know that he and Charles share a bed, but that doesn’t mean that Erik cares to let them see it. He swings his legs over the side before he calls out, “Come in.”

The ornate old doorknob turns and opens, and it’s Jubilee on the other side.

“I found some more aspirin,” she says, holding out four pills and a glass of water. She’s blushing at the mere sight of the both of them in the bedroom, regardless that Erik is fully dressed.

He stands and takes the pills. “Thank you.”

“Are you feeling any better, Professor?” asks Jubilee.

“Much better,” Charles lies. “Thank you.”

“Good.” She looks back and forth between the two of them, as if deciding how to proceed. “I don’t know if Magneto told you, but we’ve been talking about going and finding Kitty. When you’re feeling better of course. Maybe in a week or so.”

Erik starts to tell her, “Yes, I told him and— ”

“I’m ready now,” Charles interrupts. When Erik turns back to the bed, Charles has pushed himself up into sitting position, and his eyes are glistening. He smiles wickedly at Erik. “I have an idea.”


End file.
